Destiny, Episode II: A Hunter Rises

Previous Episode: Episode I, A Warlock Rises
Next Episode: Episode III, A Titan Rises

Somewhere in the Reef...
Day 002

Lisset snapped her eyes open, gasping desperately for air. As soon as her lungs filled, she emptied them with a terrible, terrified scream. She could still feel the Captain's blade slicing through her chest plate, and all of the flesh and muscle underneath, like it was made of paper. She remembered the universe leaking away from her eyes, the vacuum of space making it impossible to hear the jeers of her killer.

She had died, painfully alone, with no one to hear her scream. Now she had returned, impossibly, from the dead, and yet it felt like nothing had changed. She was still on the asteroid she had boarded in hunt of the accursed Wolves, she was still alone, and she still couldn't hear anything but her own screaming.

When her lungs emptied again, she no longer felt like screaming anymore. All she wanted was off this damned rock and to go home, to the Reef, to her sisters in the Corsairs. She tried to move her arms to get herself up-nothing in her body responded. It was then that she heard a stern male synthetic voice announce without any warning that "this is going to hurt."

It wasn't lying. A pain seconded only by being impaled wracked her body like an electrical current. As it began to fade, Lisset could feel control returning to her limbs as she spasmed. The voice cut in again, only slightly sounding concerned. "The first revive is always the worst. Rest of the time, you're not dead long enough for it to hurt like that."

Lisset scrambled to her feet, hands up in a fighting stance. She reached almost unconsciously to her hip for her sidearm, but there was nothing there. In fact, nothing about what she had was right. "Who are you?" She shouted into her helmet. "Where is my equipment? Why am I in this armor? How are you on my comms?"

There was a flash of blue light, and as Lisset blinked away the last of the fog in her vision, she could see the unmistakable shape of a Guardian's Ghost hovering before her. She took a step back, shocked. "First, I am a Ghost-you may call me 'Dal'-short for 'Durandal', like the sword." The Ghost spoke in this matter-of-fact, almost condescending, voice to the Corsair. Lisset couldn't tell if it was because of arrogance, or some weary experience with no time for niceties. "Second, your weapons and armor were scavenged, I can't tell if it was by the Fallen or the Awoken. Either way, I had to create new equipment for you using surrounding matter." Lisset glanced about-sure enough, she could see that the area around her had been unnaturally smoothed out, the crags and outcroppings converted by Dal. "Finally, I'm in your comms because they're Guardian standard issue."

Lisset took a step back, her fighting stance slacking slightly as her mind races. She had heard the stories of the Guardians from her fellow Corsairs, but she had never seen one. Now this thing had made her one?

"You're going to make me go back to your City!" Lisset spat, taking another step back. "Make me a slave of your Traveler, fight in some damned endless war!" She paused before screaming "answer me!"

"I can't make you do anything." Dal responded. "You are as much an individual now as you were before-only now you have powers that come with a respon-"

"Take me back to the Outpost!" Lisset interrupted, her fists tightening. "Where is my ship?" Dal spun about his axis, thinking.

"Your ship is hidden where you left it. Very clever, using that debris to obscure it's profile." It answered. "As for returning to your home, I'm not sure if you realize what would happen if you reported in."

"Oh, really?" Lisset growled, her eyes narrowing. "The Ghost from the City has the gall to lecture a citizen of the Reef, one of the Queen's bloody Corsairs, about her home?"

"You died during the Reef Wars, correct?" Dal questioned. "That was a long time ago. The Reef isn't the same."

"It's still my home!" Lisset countered. "Unless my Queen is dead and my people scattered, it's same enough for me."

"You're not same enough for them." Dal interjected cuttingly. "You're a Guardian now, regardless of if you call yourself that. If you showed up at the Queen's doorstep, you'd be locked away, examined, and then dissected."

"That isn't true!" Lisset barked, taking another step back. She scrambled when had back pressed against something hard, but it was just the cavern's wall.

"Isn't it, though?" Dal flew close to her helmet, and Lisset recoiled in disgust. "What did your people do to every Fallen you captured?" Lisset slid away from the Ghost, but doubt flooded her mind; she remembered the howls of the aliens as the Techuens examined them. The sound of pain bridged any language gap. She shuddered at the thought of them moving towards her, their long robes flowing, the Queen herself watching silently with her piercing blue eyes-

Something flashed red in the corner of her vision, and Lisset was snapped back to reality. "Something triggered your motion tracker." Dal explained hurriedly. It vanished in a flash before piping up again in the armor. "This asteroid belongs to the Fallen-unless you want to die again, we need to get to your fighter. We can argue about destination later." Lisset nodded, adrenaline flooding through her.

"I need a weapon." She said, gritting her teeth. Suddenly, there was a flash, and a weight pressed down on her left hand. She looked down, and when the light faded, there rested a steel knife, a cruel and sleek blade.

"I don't have any firearms stored, but I can give you this." Dal announced. "Think it'll be enough?" Lisset allowed herself the luxury of a smile.

"It was once." She said, exhaling slowly. "It will be again."

+ + + + + + +

The tunnels were as labrynthine as a nightmare. The Fallen were well adapted to the dark, so they had left no equipment to aid anyone else unfortunate enough to be stuck in the rock. This was their territory, and Lisset wouldn't be safe until her Galliot was far, far away from here.

She couldn't drown out what Dal had said, the Ghost's words bouncing around in her ears. It took a good deal of her to just force herself to focus on the situation before her. Every step she took drew her mind back to reality. Once, this had been routine for her, but she had had her Vestian by her side then, and another Corsair a few kilometers away ready to help.

"How did you find me?" Lisset asked, a thought striking her. She had never heard of a Ghost in the Reef.

"I snuck aboard a skiff on Earth, and it took me out here." Dal admitted. "Not my best idea, but the Speaker doesn't usually like Ghosts going off on their own. There aren't all that many of us."

"I thought Guardians were invincible." Lisset muttered, surprised.

"All things die." Dal replied, a touch sharply. "A Guardian can come back as long as his Ghost can touch the Light. There are plenty of places and things out there that make that impossible." It paused, and Lisset could swear the thing had sighed. "It's been a long, long war."

"And now you have me." Lisset added, rounding a corner. "I don't think one reluctant Guardian would be much help to your cause."

"One good person in the right place can make all the difference in the-watch out!" Dal shouted suddenly, and Lisset instinctively jumped back. Her motion tracker filled with red as a Vandal jumped out from where it had been hiding in the ceiling, its arc blade out. It took a step forward, but then it paused, examining her armor. The alien began to jitter, it's head turning rapidly to find an exit. It recognized that its target was wearing the armor of a Guardian-and it was afraid.

Shouting into her helmet, Lisset charged the Vandal, her knife swinging for the Fallen's throat. The alien panicked, cutting down at her with its sword, but Lisset barely felt an impact, her momentum unbroken. Before the Vandal could make another move, her blade connected, met only with blue ichor. As Lisset pulled her knife free, the Fallen collapsed, dead.

"Impressive work." Dal applauded.

"It was terrified." Lisset said, kicking the corpse. "It didn't even touch me."

"Actually, it did." Dal corrected. "Your Light creates a passive shield that works in conjunction with your armor. It's highly effective, but it isn't impenetrable." Lisset nodded.

"I'll keep that in mind." She replied, cleaning the blade lazily with her fingers. "Now where?"

Straight ahead." Dal replied. "If that one guard found you, I'm sure the rest of the pack will, too. Be on your guard." 

"It'd help if I had more light." Lisset grumbled. "I can barely see my hands, it's so dark."

"Let me see what I can do." Dal replied, and suddenly a cone of light appeared before the Hunter, shining brightly ahead. "Hopefully this'll help. Of course, this will make it easier to see us, I hope you know."

"I'd rather attract attention than fight blind." Lisset countered, tightening her grip on her knife. "I've got no plans to die again." She resisted the temptation to add a today to the end of that sentence. As far as she knew, it had been centuries since she had died. She refrained from asking Dal, however; if the answer wasn't a pleasant one, she didn't need to hear it now.

The former Corsair moved sleekly as she continued through the tunnel system. Her motion tracker was ringed with red-contacts at the edge of detection range-but nothing seemed to approach. "Why aren't they attacking?" She hissed. "They must outnumber me a dozen to one!"

"I think they're trying to see where we go." Dal answered, unsure. "If we lead them back to your ship, they'll be able to scavenge it once they're done with us." Lisset clenched her jaw, frustrated.

"We can't turn around; they'll jump us anyways." She muttered. "We're just going to have to outrun them."

"Outrun?" Dal repeated, but Lisset didn't even try to clarify. Getting up from her crouch, the Hunter began to sprint, her knife ready at her side as she lunged forward at breakneck speed. The response by the Fallen was immediate. Unwilling to let their prey escape, a Dreg and a Vandal appeared from a side passage, weapons in hand.

At a glance, Lisset knew she had the advantage. Both aliens had long, heavy Shrapnel Launchers, effectively shotguns. In these tight environments, they'd take time to raise and ready. For her, all shed need is to get close. As the Dreg in front hefted its Launcher, Lisset slammed into it, her blade plunging into its chest. The creature didn't make a sound as it fell lifeless to the ground the instant Lisset freed her knife. The Vandal behind readied its weapon, but Lisset slid, passing underneath shards of solar energy as they flew uselessly above her head. She connected her knife to the alien's leg, and brutally pulled it down to the ground before finishing it.

Getting back up, her motion tracker began to flood as the remaining Fallen began to surge forward, enraged. She could imagine their howls of anger now. "I recommend we start going!" Dal shouted as a Captain rounded the corner behind her, three Vandals in tow. Lisset didn't need more encouragement. She took off sprinting as angry arcs of blue light impacted into the ground where she had stood.

"Which way?" Lisset yelled between gasps.

"Left!" Dal replied. Without hesitation, Lisset spun on her heels, turning sharply before flying forward again. "Right!" Dal shouted again, and again Lisset made a hairpin turn. "Stop!" The Ghost suddenly announced.

"What? Why?" Lisset yelped as she skidded to a stop, her lungs starting to burn. She felt something heavy materialize in her hand.

"The ship is right ahead, but we have to close this tunnel so they can't keep following us." Dal explained, hurriedly. "I managed to get you some grenades-quickly, toss it behind you and then start running!"

Lisset glanced down at the explosive in her hand, a small blue ball that seemed to vibrate softly with power. Without another thought, she lobbed it at the wall. A heartbeat later, the grenade soundlessly exploded into lightning. The ground shook, and as Lisset began sprinting again, she barely made out the ceiling of the cavern collapsing behind her.

The Hunter ran straight for as long as she could. She ran out of tunnel before she ran out of stamina. Stopping just short of the lip, Lisset doubled over as she caught her breath, her eyes staring out at the vast purple expanse that was the Reef. Debris and asteroids floated together, massive monuments to a time long gone.

Once she stopped panting, Lisset straightened up. "Okay, now where?" She asked, scanning what she could see. "I don't see it." Dal floated ahead from where he had been hovering over her right shoulder, and gestured towards a large piece of hull a few dozen meters away.

"It's just behind that hull plating." Dal answered. "Very clever, hiding it on the one thing moving the same speed and direction as the asteroid. It'd always be right where you left it." Lisset shrugged.

"I'm glad you're impressed." She muttered. "So, do I just try to jump to it?" The Ghost nodded.

"Don't worry, once we're close enough, I'll reboot the ship and transmat you aboard." Dal stated. Lisset took a step back, getting ready to jump into the abyss. She didn't notice herself holding her breath until she had leaped out of the asteroid.

She floated straight forward, her momentum carrying her closer and closer to the debris where she had stashed her fighter. "Got it, boarding now!" Dal interjected, and with a flash of light it vanished.

For a few seconds, the Corsair was alone again, and she gazed out at the Reef. There was something magestic about the asteroid field the Awoken had called home, but for Lisset, at that very moment, all she felt was a growing sadness. There was no going back to who she was. Maybe there was no going back at all.

A second later, Lisset felt very cold, and when she opened her eyes again she was sitting in a very familiar chair, looking into an equally familiar display. Her helmet was off, and Dal hovered next to her, expectantly. She allowed herself a smile as she gripped the throttle and stick. It was her Galliot, and despite all the years she had been dead, she still knew every inch of her angular, pyramidal fighter craft.

"The ship will need some repairs; dozens of years without maintenance take their toll." Dal spoke. "The Tower Shipwright, Amanda Holliday, should be able to work out all the kinks." It paused, waiting for a response to its suggestion. Lisset turned her head to face the Ghost-her Ghost-and sighed.

"Okay, Dal, plug in the coordinates." She replied, resigned. "Let's get out of here. They'll send a Skiff after us if we dawdle." 

"Understood." Dal said, almost cheerfully. "Next stop, the Last City." Lisset smiled slightly as the Ghost tried to hide how it felt. The next thing she knew, the autopilot had kicked in, and the Galliot surged forward before jumping into NLS, leaving the Reef far behind.

+ + + + + + +

Uldren Sov scowled as the sensor contact vanished. The Galliot was gone, en route to Earth. His sister would not be happy. Stepping away from the device, he turned to face the guard behind him. "Tell my sister I request an audience." He growled. The guard stared passively at him through her visor, unfazed. It was an act, partially, and the whole Reef knew it. Still, it made him the one that had all the enemies, not Mara, not the one who needed to have no assassins waiting to strike.

"Shall I give her a reason for your request?" The guard coolly replied. Uldren paused to think only for a second before replying.

"Tell her that one of ours has returned." He replied, scowling. "Tell her that we have a Ghost of a Corsair on the loose."